It is this fact, known from ancient intuitive experience, which
prompted man of old to attribute particular spiritual significance to
the various precious stones of the earth and to use them
correspondingly in his rituals.

Crystallization, seen thus in its cosmic aspect, shows a dynamic
orientation which is polarically opposite to that of the earth's
seismic activities. Just as in the latter we observe levity taking hold
of ponderable matter and moving it in a direction opposite to the pull
of gravity, so in crystallization we see imponderable matter passing
over from levity into gravity. And just as we found in volcanism and
related processes a field of activity of 'functional sulphur', so we
found in snow-formation and related processes a field of activity of
'functional phosphorus'. Both fields are characterized by an
interaction between gravity and levity, this interaction being of
opposite nature in each of them.

Here, again, sulphur and phosphorus appear as bearers of a polarity of
the second order which springs from the two polarically opposite ways
of interaction between the poles of the polarity of the first order:
levity-gravity.

*

As in man there is a third system, mediating between the two polar
systems of his organism, so between sulphur and phosphorus there is a
third element which in all its characteristics holds a middle place
between them and is the bearer of a corresponding function. This
element is carbon.